Bridge House The Corner House

Bridge House, The Corner House

A substantial timber-framed house of medieval origins, situated at the corner of Bridge Street and Freshwell Street in Saffron Walden. The building comprises what were originally three separate properties, now combined into one. It represents a complex building sequence spanning from the late 15th century through to the 20th century, with a late 15th century core, an early 16th century addition at the southeast end, early 17th century refurbishment and extensions, early 18th century reconstruction and enlargement, and 19th and 20th century alterations and additions.

The structure is timber-framed and plastered, with rear additions in brick. It is three storeys high with a hipped tile roof and slated additions. The plan is now rectangular with rear irregularities, but originally comprised two medieval units—one running parallel to Bridge Street as the principal range, and another at right angles parallel to Freshwell Street.

The northeast elevation to Bridge Street presents a seven-bay early 18th century facade executed in timber and plaster. It features a moulded and dentilled eaves cornice and rusticated quoins. The central doorway has a segmented pediment with moulded jambs and a six-panelled door, the upper two panels containing 20th century glazing. All windows are sashes with glazing bars; the first and second floors retain 18th century moulded frames with some 18th century sashes, while the ground floor windows are largely 19th or 20th century replacements. The first and second floor windows are 3x4 panes. The ground floor contains, from south to north, a 20th century 3x4 sash window with horns positioned off-centre to those above; a 19th century doorway with flat cornice hood and upper glazing (3x2 panes) over two lower beaded flush panels; an 18th century window with moulded architrave and 4x4 panes; a central doorway; a 19th century three-cant bay window with brick plinth and sashes of 2x4, 3x4, and 2x4 panes; a 19th century doorway with simple cornice hood, upper glazing with margin lights, and lower moulded panel; and a 20th century 4x4 sash window. The north end features a massive early 17th century shafted stack, with the carriageway set back and the facade continuing in peg tiles, punctuated by a pair of 19th century boarded doors each with an upper separately hinged decorated section.

The southeast elevation to Freshwell Street is similar in character to the front elevation. At one upper moulded quoin is a simple date of 1550 inscribed, probably dating from the 19th century. A plain 19th century doorway contains a four-panelled bead-moulded door with an over-light. At the southwest end, single sash windows appear on each floor: the ground floor window is 19th century with 4x4 panes; the first floor window is 18th century, restored in the 19th century, with 4x4 panes; and the second floor window is 18th century with 3x4 panes. To the southwest, the rear stopped gable contains an 18th century external red brick stack and an early 20th century slated timber-framed conservatory-style lean-to.

The northwest end elevation features a broad early 17th century red brick stack with four octagonal shafts rising above the roof apex. Above these is a blind stone-framed brick pedimented three-light window. Beneath the timber-framed carriageway roof are two now-exterior fireplaces of early 17th century brickwork. The ground floor fireplace has a simple timber lintel with soffit cut back, while the first floor fireplace has a moulded arched lintel with cyma, quirk, and hollow chamfered mouldings. The stack brickwork includes horizontal timbers, probably for lintels. Large areas of 20th century brickwork appear to the rear. The carriageway rear upper boarded wall contains a pigeon loft doorway and arched holes for birds.

The rear southwest elevation shows the original principal street range rising to two storeys with a gabled end and stack to the south. A 17th century shafted stack appears at the north end, with three smaller intermediate red brick stacks along the range on or near the roof apex. A gabled, peg-tiled stair tower rises centrally through the roof of the principal range. To the south, a deep slated brick and timber lean-to catslide roof extends from the principal roof, with a secondary brick and timber lean-to on its north side, a small stack on the north wall, and a deep recess between additions. The north end contains a brick and slated gabled addition with a low-pitch timber-framed garage lean-to roof on its north side with glazed doors. The ground floor, running north-south, contains a late 19th century addition with French windows and a lean-to; a 19th century sliding sash window of 4x2 panes; a 20th century door with upper glazing (2x3 panes); a 20th century four-light iron casement window; a 4x4 panes sash window; and on the north end return wall, a 20th century door with upper glazing (2x3 panes) and two lower panels. The first floor, running north-south, contains an 18th century 3x4 sash window with remains of moulded panel pargetting on the wall to the north; a 20th century 3x4 sash window with horns; and a 20th century casement of 2x2 panes, with a single 20th century casement on the north return wall of the lean-to.

The interior reveals the building's complex development. The earliest phases are visible at the southeast end. The late 15th century framing of the principal range runs parallel to the street and is jettied to the southeast, with posts featuring decorated jetty brackets and chased recesses below for now-removed pilasters. A block abutted at right angles is also present. A front room with a dragon beam, once jettied around the corner of Bridge Street and Freshwell Street, possibly served as a shop. Behind this, a rear room has moulded framing and an axial joist with moulded dividing ribs creating a panelled ceiling. Clear evidence on the southeast side (to Freshwell Street) shows the original jetty with a well-preserved post, jetty bracket, and decorative pilaster in the southwest corner. A long shutter groove and joint evidence indicate a large bracketed medieval oriel bay window beneath the jetty. An undershot passageway runs through from Bridge Street (in line with the 19th century front doorway) with an internal porch or ante-room leading to a decorated room. The doorway between has a four-centred arched head with a quatrefoiled roundel and daggers in the spandrels; a plain similar doorway connects to the rear of the porch. A large bracket at the rear suggests the range may have been cut back. Above, the first floor contains a large chamber on the same axis, now divided into two bays, with jowled posts and a central cambered tie-beam with a bold brace remaining. A shutter groove to the front (Bridge Street) shows the original window site with a stud peg gap implying a second window in the rear bay to Freshwell Street. The centre of the principal range contains an original narrow bay (site of the 19th century bay window), probably a cross-passage, with the hall to the south and service rooms to the north.

Early 17th century remodelling reversed the function of the house, with the north end acquiring the massive stacks for principal rooms whose internal fireplaces are now 19th and 20th century, though a shadow of a broad ground floor fireplace survives. A contemporary stack of small bricks was built on the back wall for a rear kitchen wing addition; a ceiling joist with lamb's tongue chamfer stops remains, binding the stack and kitchen walls, though both are now cut down as a plain lean-to. Throughout the house, sections of early 17th century panelling with fluted frieze and fluted fan panels are reused for doors and wainscotting.

The 18th century enlargement comprised the construction of a timber-framed upper floor windowed to the street but shallow in depth, with the roof carried down at the back to the earlier eaves level. A well-preserved newel stair with turned balusters and shaped handrail features square newel posts set through the rear of the old cross-passage and projected through the roof pitch as a stair tower rising to the second storey. Pendant cherub's heads appear on hanging newel posts. The cross-passage framing was removed on the south side and the partition resited to create a spacious entrance hall. This partition frame is supported on two timber Corinthian columns within the hall. The interior contains considerable late 19th and early 20th century partitions and rear additions. An early 17th century kitchen fireplace was infilled with a 19th century grate, and the stack was then truncated to stop below the lean-to roof set over the kitchen area. The roof has been considerably rebuilt with softwood members. Records from the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (1911) and a photograph circa 1920 document the house as containing three shops, explaining the early 20th century reinstatement of the Georgian ground floor frontage. A cellar lies below the southeast end of the central range.